AEMO notes possible early-morning direction in NSW on Thursday 25th September 2025
Worth calling out MN129729 published on Wednesday 24th September 2025 at 14:29 about possible early-morning intervention in NSW for System Strength reasons
Articles by Paul McArdle
Paul was one of the founders of Global-Roam in February 2000. He is currently the CEO of the company and the principal author of WattClarity. Writing for WattClarity has become a natural extension of his work in understanding the electricity market, enabling him to lead the team in developing better software for clients.
Before co-founding the company, Paul worked as a Mechanical Engineer for the Queensland Electricity Commission in the early 1990s. He also gained international experience in Japan, the United States, Canada, the UK, and Argentina as part of his ES Cornwall Memorial Scholarship.
ER03 now (again) slated to come offline early Thursday morning 25th September 2025
Following from the quick look at the unplanned outage for MP2 (now underway) there's some difference in the picture for the unplanned outage for ER03.
Yes, MP2 did come offline in the early hours of Wednesday morning 24th September 2025
A short note looking at the commencement of the unplanned outage for MP2 on Wednesday morning 24th September 2025
AEMO oscillates warnings – possible need to intervene in NSW on Thu 25th Sept 2025 for System Strength reasons
At 15:30 today (Tuesday 23rd September 2025) the AEMO flagged in MN129259 a possible need to intervene in NSW this Thursday 25th September 2025 due to forecast low System Strength.
MT PASA shows forecast Low Reserve Conditions in both NSW (Aug-Sept 2027) and SA (Dec 2026 to March 2027)
Today's MT PASA update features forecast tight supply-demand balance in both the SA and NSW regions at various times - in terms of both annual Unserved Energy, and Low Reserve Conditions.
Mainstream media reports about blades lost at Flyers Creek Wind Farm
A brief, belated and back-dated article to point to the ABC news article about the damage at Flyers Creek Wind Farm (and
Belatedly noting 16 winners announced (on Tuesday 16th September 2025) in Capacity Investment Scheme auctions
Coincident with last week's CEC's QCES in Brisbane, the Federal Government announced 16 winners for 'Tender 3' of the Capacity Investment Scheme.
Prices for Lower Regulation FCAS elevated across the mainland Sunday afternoon 21st September 2025
A short article looking at some elevated prices for Regulation Lower FCAS on Sunday afternoon 21st September 2025
A brief recap of a large afternoon frequency wobble on the NEM mainland on Saturday 20th September 2025
We noticed yesterday (Saturday 20th September 2025) a large afternoon dip in frequency down towards (but not outside) the limits of the NOFB - and briefly explore here.
Australian Government vows to cut its emissions by 62 to 70 per cent by 2035
On Thursday 18th September 2025, the much-awaited announcement has been made about our climate targets for 2035.
ESIG Report ‘Testing the Performance of Grid-Forming Resources’ released
Today we received notification from ESIG of the release of their report ‘Testing the Performance of Grid-Forming Resources’.
Belatedly highlighting the AEMO’s ‘Technical Review of the NEM Frequency Control Landscape’ from July 2025
Back in July 2025 we saw the AEMO had released this ‘Technical Review of the NEM Frequency Control Landscape’ … but are only noting this here now.
Oliver Nunn (from Endgame Analytics) illustrates how wind droughts are ‘a thing’
Returning for the second day of CEC QCES in the 'Long Duration Energy Storage' Oliver Nunn shared more insights from the Endgame modelling.
CleanCo modelled results of one scenario in a year late in the next decade
Flagging two charts that Rimu talked through to sum up some of the observations he made about some modelled results for some (unstated) year late in the next decade.
Changed operational profiles for Swanbank E and Wivenhoe (CleanCo assets)
From the CEC QCES 2025 was this pair of charts that Rimu Nelson (from CleanCo) presented to illustrate the vastly different operating profiles for Swanbank E and Wivenhoe pumped hydro.
Some snippets, from the ‘Long Duration Energy Storage’ session on day 2 of CEC QCES 2025
A short article to wrap up some of the content delivered in the Long Duration Energy Storage session at the CEC's QRES 2025.
From the ‘Operating in the NEM’ session on day 1 of CEC QCES 2025
One of the other sessions at CEC QRES that was of interest was the 'Operating in the NEM' session, from which we'll look to share more.
Update to Constraint Violation Penalty (CVP) Factors – effective 19th September 2025
Referencing AEMO's MN129117 published Tuesday 16th September 2025 with respect to this Friday 19th September 2025.
Six different lenses to view the ESOO 2025 … giving wildly different perspectives
About 4 weeks ago the 2025 ESOO was released. In this article we highlight 3 x 2 different ways this might be viewed - and note some other dimensions not considered.
‘we’re moving fast, but not fast enough’
Also featuring in the (perhaps misnamed) 'Faster than Forecast' session was David Dixon from Rystad - here's two things that jumped out to me.